


While the Castle Sleeps

by Elzie (gallaxygay)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon Universe, Drabble, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Langst, M/M, Orphan Keith (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 08:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13853583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallaxygay/pseuds/Elzie
Summary: Keith's thankful, of course. His life on earth, if Lance hadn’t come barging in, (loud and obnoxious, as always) probably would have been short and miserable at best. also i haven't edited this so uhhh sorry abt any mistakes !-A drabble featuring Keith's late night thoughts about his relationship with Lance.





	While the Castle Sleeps

Lance misses the ocean something fierce.

Keith knows this - knows this fact intimately; he's held this fact in his arms at night - and so he knows that Lance misses the ocean. But he doesn't think that he understands (or that he could ever understand) the ferocity with which Lance longs to be home again.

It used to bother him a lot. When Voltron was just a group of half-strangers, Keith spent long hours in the training room, desperately trying to come to terms with the war that Lance flew them into, that first night. His bayard left callouses on his hands; and the training room, bleeding knuckles and full body bruises. But Keith spent even longer hours in his room, just lying in bed and watching the ceiling, ruminating over the incredible series of events that led him to Altea, then Voltron, and to Shiro. It bothered him. He didn't like the chances, doesn't like how everything (for just a moment) was left to fate's wrath. 

-

_Lance found him in the training room with four broken ribs and a bashed in nose. Keith doesn't remember much of that night._

_"You know, Keith," Lance had said with a nervous, but reassuring smile as he offered a hand to help him up. "You'll kill yourself like this."_

_Keith had snorted, immediately regretting it after a searing pain tore through his abdomen. Lance furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "I can help," he said a bit pathetically._

_"You can't," Keith snapped. He regretted that too, but was too tired and hurt to care. He added a halfhearted, "Fuck off man."_

_Lance shook his head resolutely, a frown eating away at his lips. "I'll bring you to the healing pod. Just, can you - Jesus christ Keith, calm the fuck down - I'm just going to bring you to the healing bay." Then, as an afterthought, "You can't live like this, Keith."_

_The next morning, Keith learnt something about friendship (and Lance). Lance had fallen asleep in a chair right next to the healing pod._

_-_

Keith's thankful, of course. His life on earth, if Lance hadn’t come barging in, (loud and obnoxious, as always) probably would have been short and miserable at best. Living in a desert wasn’t sustainable but neither was the grief he carried around with him, like a black shroud upon his life. It took Keith months of late night conversations with Lance to learn that his grief, his black and ugly shroud, is not his personality - that he has more qualities to offer then walls upon walls of defences and anger.

-

_"Keith," Lance had called out, his voice echoing down the hallway. "Please, Keith!"_

_He remembers spinning on his feet with rage and sharp words on his tongue. Keith hadn't been expecting Lance to have tears on his eyes. Or for Lance to flinch back so violently. Keith stepped back and his arms flew up, trying to get that (scared?) look off Lance's face._

_He must have seen something very nasty and guilty on Keith's face,because suddenly Lance's hands were flying up to yank on short, brown hair. "No, no, no - I'm sorry," he had cried out. "I , fuck me, I just - please don't be mean Keith - I just need to know that you're still trying to be okay."_

_"What?"_

_"You're still trying to be okay, again?"_

_"What the fuck does that mean, Lance."_

_Lance's mouth twisted in discomfort. "I didn't know you, before. But I don't think that this is you, right now?"_

_Keith felt anger boiling in the pit of his stomach. Anger. Rage. Something that makes Lance afraid to be with Keith in dark hallways. Turning back on his heel Keith snapped, "You don't know shit about me, Lance."_

_-_

Keith is thankful for Lance, too.

-

_"I know you like to put that green stuff that Hunk keeps on the highest shelf on your food goo," Lance said, a little desperate at speaking to Keith's back. His voice had  wobbled halfway through his sentence. Keith wondered if Lance was crying, but wasn't masochistic enough to check. "And I know that people aren't angry like you are for no reason whatsoever."_

_Keith didn't respond. He didn't know what to say but the anger that had been making him almost nauseous with rage dissipated like smoke in the wind. He was left feeling empty and vaguely gutted._

_"I know that you're good. I know that you're so fucking cool with your sword - like a ninja. And I know that the red lion chose you, so that must count for something. But Keith, buddy," he heard Lance's footsteps approaching from behind. "I'm not going to fight with you tonight, 'kay? You should probably just like, meditate on it."_

_-_

He doesn’t know how to describe Lance, and doesn’t truly believe that he could ever find the words to capture his sunshine boy. For a large portion of his life, Keith hadn't even thought that people like Lance existed on earth. The world he knew was harsh and angry and simply didn’t contain the sunny sort of people who are attracted to Lance. For the sort of sunny people like Lance. 

(Keith wonders (hopes?), sometimes, if he has become one of Lance’s sunny people)

-

_Keith and Lance danced hand in hand in the rain. For the moment, they were not paladins, just children in love. Shrieks of laughter and cries of joy made harmonies with the noise of the native animals of the planet._

_Lance had cried, when the rain first began. Then, he danced. And he sung Broadway songs. And he grabbed Keith by his hand and pulled him into a waltz among the raindrops, twirling and lifting and singing and kissing in hot, summer rain.  
_

_Keith remembers when Lance had pulled him into a close hug, and the way that their bodies felt pressed together. He remembers the way Lance's hot breaths felt in the crook of his neck, and the way the sand felt beneath his feet, and the small sting of droplets of water on his forehead._

_He remembers a beat of silence, where the world was just rain._

_And then, Keith remembers Lance asking, "Are you happy, pretty boy?"_

_-_

Sometimes he feels like he doesn’t do enough in their relationship - like he isn’t giving Lance any of what he needs. Logically, Keith knows that this isn’t true - and that the only thing he can’t provide is his presence while at the Blade. And in hindsight, Keith recognizes that the reason their relationship is and was so successful is because Lance took the time to know Keith, and then to make himself knowable in return. Keith doesn't know what he gives though, or what Lance gets from it in return. 

"Keith?" Lance stands at his doorway, arms wrapped around his torso uncomfortably. His voice is small when he asks, "Do you mind if I come in?" 

Keith pats the spot on his bed right beside him, already shifting closer to the wall so that Lance can sleep over for the night. "What's up?" 

Lance sits. Takes a deep breath and says, "I love you." 

Keith freezes. He forgets how to breathe. 

Lance continues. "I know, um, that this is probably a big deal for you - I mean, it's a big deal for me too - but I know that you have your things, so I don't expect anything from you. I just was thinking," he explains, hands waving in the air. "

Keith wills himself to move. Wills himself to do something useful with all the feelings moving through his body. He can feel Lance's eyes burning into the side of his head, but he doesn't have the willpower to meet Lance's ever-earnest gaze. 

"I used to fight all our battles because I wanted to go home and shit, I really do - but today I was standing there in front of that gnarly ass general, you know the one?" Lance asks, and it's a rhetorical question but Keith lets out a strangled laugh anyway. Lance fixes him with a look, but doesn't say anything to it. "And I was thinking, that  _shit_ , I gotta come back to Keith. I gotta make sure that I get back for Keith. I gotta - and it was about the ocean before. And I love the ocean-"

"-and you love me," Keith finishes, a little breathlessly. 

Lance visibly perks up, obviously feeling a little relieved that Keith responded. "Like the ocean, babe." 

"Okay," Keith says, basking in the comfort of Lance's easy acceptance. "Okay, Lance." 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys ! thank you so much for reading !!! (especially if you got all the way to the end of the work) please let me know what you think, it's super encouraging and i love hearing about what you all think !!
> 
> also i'm probably definitely writing a small second chapter, in which keith says the three words two


End file.
